Nashville Scene 3-11-21 by FW Publishing

CITY LIMITS: MAYOR’S OFFICE NOTCHES ONE WIN, MUST WAIT FOR ANOTHER

MARCH 11–17, 2021 I VOLUME 40 I NUMBER 6 I NASHVILLESCENE.COM I FREE

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MUSIC: CATCHING UP WITH VALERIE JUNE ABOUT HER NEW LP PAGE 24

Surveying some of Nashville’s best-known chefs, improving your dining-at-home experience and more

TH E

FOOD ISSUE

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OTAKU RAMEN TANTANMEN RAMEN KIT PLATED ON SALT CERAMICS

3/8/21 6:21 PM

— Rissi Palmer From an interview with the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, referring to artist Linda Martell, and to giving people credit and praise when and where it’s due.

North Carolina singer and songwriter Rissi Palmer hosts the radio show Color Me Country, which brings to light the contributions of Black, Indigenous, and Latinx artists in country music. Palmer charted with her own debut song “Country Girl” in 2007, and has championed those artists of color who have come before her, notably Linda Martell, whose 1970 album Color Me Country inspired the radio show’s title. To learn more about Palmer, and other artists shaping the music today, visit the exhibit American Currents: State of the Music at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, open March 12.

AMERICAN CURRENTS OPENS FRIDAY DOWNTOWN NASHVILLE

Visit CountryMusicHallofFame.org to buy tickets. photo:

NASHVILLE SCENE | MARCH 11 – MARCH 17, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

Chris Charles

CONTENTS

Making Moves

Talkback

CITY LIMITS

THEATER

Mayor’s office notches one win, must wait for another

With conVERGEnce, Verge Theater Company imagines a more equitable theater industry

BY STEPHEN ELLIOTT

BY ERICA CICCARONE

A roadways bill taking aim at nonviolent protests is making its way through the state House

OZ Arts resumes live, in-person performances with the premiere of Prism

Road to Ruin

BY LENA MAZEL

Pith in the Wind

This week on the Scene’s news and politics blog

THIS WEEK ON THE WEB: Brandy Clark Marks a Milestone for Your Life Is a Record

Touch and Go BY AMY STUMPFL

BOOKS

Tennessee Joins Lawsuit Over Biden’s Environmental Executive Order

Portrait of an Activist

First Bite: Shep’s Delicatessen

BY BETH WALTEMATH AND CHAPTER 16

Inmates Are a High Risk for COVID Transmission, but a Low Priority for Tennessee

Street chaplain Lindsey Krinks finds her voice through serving others

COVER STORY The Food Issue

The Chefs’ Guide to Eating in Nashville ...9 13 chefs tell us what they love to pick up, scarf down or try out when they’re going stir-crazy BY ASHLEY BRANTLEY

Loving the Land ....................................... 11 With CSA participation up during the pandemic, more Nashvillians are learning to utilize and appreciate local produce BY JENNIFER JUSTUS

Taking and Baking .................................. 12 Five local take-and-bake dishes that are the next best thing to cooking it from scratch yourself BY SCENE STAFF

Ware It Out .............................................. 14

Stock your cabinets with ‘useful art’ from these four local kitchenware purveyors BY CHRIS CHAMBERLAIN

MUSIC

ON THE COVER:

Otaku Ramen Tantanmen Ramen Kit Plated on Salt Ceramics Photo by Eric England

Of This World ........................................... 24 Valerie June expands her vision on The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers BY BRITTNEY McKENNA

President Gas .......................................... 25 Palm Ghosts embrace pop and dystopia on Lifeboat Candidate BY EDD HURT

Pilgrim’s Progress ................................... 25 Nashville singer-songwriter Lauryn Peacock examines the varieties of religious belief on Theology BY EDD HURT

The Basement East Rises, Shutters Again Temporarily.............................................. 26 A staffer tested positive for the coronavirus after a socially distanced reopening event

CRITICS’ PICKS

BY STEPHEN TRAGESER

See MOCAN’s ‘Radical’ Thoughts pop-up, celebrate Pi Day with pie, stream short films via LunaFest, build your own streaming Chloé Zhao film festival, listen to Wilma Burgess, stream Gallathea/Galatea at Red Bull Theater, listen to the Too Long; Didn’t Watch podcast and more

BY JASON SHAWHAN

Tree of Life

BY STEVE ERICKSON

FILM

Primal Stream 45 ................................... 27 Unsettling horror, stylish horror and absurdist humor, now available to stream

Just Desert .............................................. 28 A Shape of Things to Come gives radical individualism a close-up

VODKA YONIC On mourning, when the rituals of death have been stolen by the circumstances of the year BY KAT RIDLEY

MONTH DATE, YEAR

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NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD

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SCENERY Arts and Culture News From the Nashville Scene

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FROM BILL FREEMAN CHANCELLOR ELLEN HOBBS LYLE TARGETED BY REPUBLICANS OVER ABSENTEE VOTING RULING Republican legislators are targeting Davidson County Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle due to a ruling she made last year to expand absentee voting during the COVID-19 pandemic. The claim is that Lyle — by ruling to extend mail-in voting opportunities to those in high-health-risk groups, caretakers and those in extreme fear of contracting COVID-19 — was somehow subverting the law. Sixty-seven members of the Republican caucus have signed on as co-sponsors of state Rep. Tim Rudd’s (R-Murfreesboro) measure to remove Lyle. No Republican candidate filed to run against Lyle in 2014, and she received almost 44,000 votes for the Chancery Court Part III bench. As Stephen Elliott reported for our sister publication, the Nashville Post: “Lyle was first appointed to the Chancery Court by Republican Gov. Don Sundquist and sought to retain the position by running as a Republican herself. She later won election as a Democrat.” In a Tennessee House Democratic Caucus press conference last week, Rep. Bill Beck (D-Nashville) summarized the problem with Rudd’s resolution: Chancellor Lyle received the case at random with the issue about who would get an absentee voter card. There were three groups who needed consideration — those who were prone to having health complications from catching COVID-19, those who were caretakers of that high-risk group, and those who had an emphatic fear of voting during the pandemic. Beck noted that Lyle ruled an injunction so that all three groups could get an absentee ballot in June for an election in August — plenty of time for it to be appealed to the Tennessee Supreme Court, which it was. The state, though originally objecting to all three categories, later decided to concede on the first two. And those two, noted Beck, were “agreed in the Supreme Court that they could move forward.” Now, Beck says, “a member of the legislature has decided this was some type of activist role by the chancellor.” But as Steve Cavendish wrote in last week’s issue of Scene: “Lyle is the best judge on any bench in Nashville, and maybe in the entire state. Because of its proximity to the Capitol, chancery court in Nashville hears more complicated litigation and sorts through more arcane governmental disputes than any other state court in Tennessee. Take a poll of serious attorneys — even the ones whom Lyle has ruled against — and they would likely choose to appear in her court over any other. The state Supreme Court even created a special business court docket that funneled complex business disputes into her court beginning in 2015. Why? Because the state wanted to instill confidence in businesses that they would get a fair, competent hearing when tough cases arise. It’s been a huge success.” Both the Nashville Bar Association and the Tennessee Bar Association have released statements to the press noting their extreme disfavor with the resolution. (Both statements can be viewed in full via WSMV.com.) Nashville Bar Association

President Mike Abelow calls the bill a “dangerous attack on the independence of the judiciary in Tennessee.” Abelow further notes: “Judges must be able to decide controversial cases based on the facts and the law, not based on how their decision may be perceived by the legislature. Violating that precedent threatens the people’s rights under our Constitution.” Tennessee Bar Association President Michelle Greenway Sellers issued a similar statement, saying: “We believe House Resolution (HR23) will have a chilling effect on the administration of justice in our state, and threatens the bedrock principle of separation of powers, which lies at the core of Tennessee’s system of government.” The resolution points to Article VI, Section 6 of the Tennessee Constitution, under which a judge can be removed “for cause.” But Sellers makes clear several ways Tennessee law already holds judges accountable should that prove necessary. The first is the Board of Judicial Conduct, which was “created by the legislature itself.” This board can look into any number of things, from “fitness of the judge to rule” to “any act that reflects unfavorably upon the judiciary.” Another means of accountability is the appeals process — and another is the election process. Sellers added: “Article VI, Section 6 is not a tool used as a matter of course, and we respectfully believe that the legislature should not use it in this circumstance.” Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association president John Griffith told The Tennessean: “We have checks and balances in place. You don’t remove a judge because you disagree with the decision. I don’t want her decisions flavored by the shadow of a separate body of government that really shouldn’t be involved in this particular situation.” Rudd’s resolution is a slap in the face to our respected and independent judges, and one that could have serious consequences on future cases. Vincent Dixie (D-Nashville) said it well in the caucus press conference: “We need to be focusing on, how are we going to make Tennesseans’ lives better?”

Bill Freeman Bill Freeman is the owner of FW Publishing, the publishing company that produces the Nashville Scene, Nfocus, the Nashville Post and Home Page Media Group in Williamson County.

Editor-in-Chief D. Patrick Rodgers Senior Editor Dana Kopp Franklin Associate Editor Alejandro Ramirez Arts Editor Laura Hutson Hunter Culture Editor Erica Ciccarone Music and Listings Editor Stephen Trageser Contributing Editors Jack Silverman, Abby White Staff Writers Stephen Elliott, Nancy Floyd, Steven Hale, Kara Hartnett, J.R. Lind, William Williams Contributing Writers Sadaf Ahsan, Radley Balko, Ashley Brantley, Maria Browning, Steve Cavendish, Chris Chamberlain, Lance Conzett, Marcus K. Dowling, Steve Erickson, Randy Fox, Adam Gold, Seth Graves, Kim Green, Steve Haruch, Geoffrey Himes, Edd Hurt, Jennifer Justus, Christine Kreyling, Katy Lindenmuth, Craig D. Lindsey, Brittney McKenna, Marissa R. Moss, Noel Murray, Joe Nolan, Chris Parton, Betsy Phillips, John Pitcher, Margaret Renkl, Megan Seling, Jason Shawhan, Michael Sicinski, Ashley Spurgeon, Amy Stumpfl, Kay West, Andrea Williams, Cy Winstanley, Ron Wynn, Charlie Zaillian Editorial Intern Diana Leyva Art Director Elizabeth Jones Photographers Eric England, Matt Masters, Daniel Meigs Graphic Designers Mary Louise Meadors, Tracey Starck Production Coordinator Christie Passarello Events and Marketing Director Olivia Britton Promotions Coordinator Caroline Poole Publisher Mike Smith Senior Advertising Solutions Managers Maggie Bond, Sue Falls, Michael Jezewski, Carla Mathis, Heather Cantrell Mullins, Stevan Steinhart, Jennifer Trsinar, Keith Wright Advertising Solutions Manager Olivia Bellon, William Shutes Sales Operations Manager Chelon Hill Hasty Advertising Solutions Associates Aya Robinson, Price Waltman Special Projects Coordinator Susan Torregrossa President Frank Daniels III Chief Financial Officer Todd Patton Corporate Production Director Elizabeth Jones Vice President of Marketing Mike Smith IT Director John Schaeffer Circulation and Distribution Director Gary Minnis For advertising information please contact: Mike Smith, msmith@nashvillescene.com or 615-844-9238 FW PUBLISHING LLC Owner Bill Freeman VOICE MEDIA GROUP National Advertising 1-888-278-9866 vmgadvertising.com

Copyright©2020, Nashville Scene. 210 12th Ave. S., Ste. 100, Nashville, TN 37203. Phone: 615-244-7989. The Nashville Scene is published weekly by FW Publishing LLC. The publication is free, one per reader. Removal of more than one paper from any distribution point constitutes theft, and violators are subject to prosecution. Back issues are available at our office. Email: All email addresses consist of the employee’s first initial and last name (no space between) followed by @nashvillescene.com; to reach contributing writers, email editor@nashvillescene.com. Editorial Policy: The Nashville Scene covers news, art and entertainment. In our pages appear divergent views from across the community. Those views do not necessarily represent those of the publishers. Subscriptions: Subscriptions are available at $150 per year for 52 issues. Subscriptions will be posted every Thursday and delivered by third-class mail in usually five to seven days. Please note: Due to the nature of third-class mail and postal regulations, any issue(s) could be delayed by as much as two or three weeks. There will be no refunds issued. Please allow four to six weeks for processing new subscriptions and address changes. Send your check or Visa/MC/AmEx number with expiration date to the above address.

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NASHVILLE SCENE | MARCH 11 – MARCH 17, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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CITY LIMITS

BY STEPHEN ELLIOTT

ast week was a busy one for Mayor John Cooper and the Metro Council. The legislative body considered and approved a nearly $500 million capital spending plan brought by the mayor. The list of approved spending includes $100 million for a new high school in Bellevue, $15 million for a new police precinct in Antioch and $122 million in transportation projects, described by Cooper as the first step in his transportation plan. The debate over the capital spending plan — as it usually is — was focused on whether the city was spending too much and whether the plan’s funds were distributed equitably. Though the spending plan passed 31-7, opposed councilmembers (and even some reluctant supporters) argued it was irresponsible to spend so much after a year in which Metro raised property taxes by more than 30 percent. “There’s a value to each of these projects, but I can’t see why we should go in the direction of going further into debt when there’s still unknowns with COVID,” Councilmember Thom Druffel said at last week’s Metro Council meeting. “We’re going in a very aggressive fashion at a time when we should be more cautious.” But it wasn’t enough to sway most councilmembers. The plan also includes $20 million for stormwater work, $25 million for

ROAD TO RUIN A roadways bill taking aim at nonviolent protests is making its way through the state House BY LENA MAZEL

he right to protest has long been a cornerstone of American democracy, intrinsically linked to free speech. But a new bill currently moving through the Tennessee legislature could suppress protests by creating felony charges for the nonviolent offense of blocking traffic, sidewalks or other public spaces. It also will grant “immunity from prosecution” for individuals who injure or kill protesters with their vehicles. The bill, HB0513, advanced from the House Criminal Justice Committee to the Finance, Ways and Means Committee on March 3. It is sponsored by state Rep. Ron M. Gant (R-Rossville) and will likely be heard on the Senate floor within the next two weeks. Gant said in a statement that the bill “promotes law and order and protects Tennessee communities against violence.” But advocates worry that the bill is simply targeting protesters for speaking out. Late last summer, protesters blocked the Capitol’s garage entrance, which is used by legislators — that action may have been, at least in part, the impetus for the bill. HB0513 aims to change obstructing a roadway from a misdemeanor to a class E felony. Disobeying a request to move made by law enforcement or firefighters would also become a class E felony. Significantly, the new bill also protects people who injure or kill protesters with their car, provided they

Metro vehicles, $14 million to rebuild a fire station on Second Avenue North and $68 million for repairs at Metro schools. “Yes, we raised taxes on the people, but the point of raising the taxes is to be able to use the money to serve the people,” Councilmember Zulfat Suara said during the debate. “Using the money for the community is a priority.” The $122 million in new transportation projects includes $21 million for sidewalk repairs and construction, $2 million for bus shelters, $30 million for road paving, $2.5 million for traffic-calming projects and $7.5 million for “smart traffic management projects.” And though Cooper was successful in gaining support for the first phase of his transportation plan, another key piece was put on hold. Since his 2019 campaign for mayor, Cooper has promised to establish a new Metro Department of Transportation as a way to consolidate dispersed responsibilities into one office. The goal, he says, is to make the city’s transportation planning and management more efficient and better able to secure outside funding. “People are ready for more sidewalks, more bikeways, safer pedestrian crossings and shorter commutes,” mayor’s office spokesperson Andrea Fanta says. “With an opportunity to get state and federal grants to pay for up to 60 percent of those projects, we must expertly execute on modern transportation — and a local DOT provides that

are “exercising due care” — a frustratingly opaque phrase — and the injury or death is unintentional. Rep. Vincent Dixie of District 54 in Davidson County was one of three House Democrats recorded as voting against the bill. He worries that legislation like HB0513 could hurt the future of young protesters. “You’re taking away that ability for people to correct injustices,” Dixie says. “It’s going to give them a felony that’s on their record for protesting or advocating for something that they feel is wrong in our country.” Though voting rights for convicted felons vary from state to state, in Tennessee, many people with a felony charge on their record cannot vote. (Tennesseans with certain felony charges may obtain a “certificate of restoration” in order to restore their voting rights, though the certificate is dependent upon the applicant being paid up on all fines, fees and restitution.) According to the Pew Research Center, 41 percent of participants in the summer’s Black Lives Matter protests were younger than 30. Bills like HB0513, if passed, could significantly affect some young people and their right to vote. While Tennessee has a legal definition of a riot, HB0513 is cryptic about differentiating a riot from a peaceful protest. Critics of the bill worry that this sets a dangerous precedent for prosecutors, who can claim a broad interpretation of events in court. And to be sure, Nashville has experienced riots. But arson, vandalism and many other riot-related crimes are already felonies — so why enact a new law? Aaron Worley, a young activist involved in protests over the summer, says he’s disgusted by the bill. “I think it’s indicative of a legislature that seeks to control and suppress people’s rights,” says Worley. “This just shows the priorities are not about safety,

PROTESTERS FILL LOWER BROADWAY, JUNE 2020

or even about addressing the issue at hand, but more so how the streets look and how to lessen the ‘inconvenience’ to people.” Dixie also worries that the driver-immunity legislation could encourage violence. “I think that’s the worst section of a bill that I’ve ever seen,” he says. “Because regardless of intent, what people are going to hear is, ‘I can run people over and I will not be charged for a crime.’ ” Dixie notes that bills like HB0513 have no measurable impact on Tennesseeans’ lives. Instead, they are meant to send a message. “They want to continue to crush the voice of people who want to pass a real positive change in Tennessee,” he says of the bill’s sponsors. He urges state leaders to shift their focus from redundant punitive legislation to enacting change that will actually help citizens. “Our job is to look after Tennesseans, not make political points,” says Dixie. “What are we doing to put food on people’s tables? Our job is to lead. And if we continue the divisiveness that started on a federal level and is seeping down into our state politics, that’s on us.” EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

THIS WEEK ON OUR NEWS AND POLITICS BLOG:

PHOTO: MATT MASTERS

MAKING MOVES Mayor’s office notches one win, must wait for another

structure. With a local DOT, Metro can recruit even more talented people, make sure we’re using the best solutions for the best prices, and ensure a return on investment for the transportation dollars we invest.” Cooper submitted a proposal to move in that direction, but the Metro Council delayed a vote on it due to questions about its legality. Under Cooper’s proposal, trash collection would move from the Department of Public Works to Metro Water Services, and public works would be “rebranded” as a new Department of Transportation. But the Metro Charter requires public works to handle solid waste, causing some councilmembers to question the plan. The mayor’s office is pushing for a charter amendment vote in 2022, but Fanta says “we see no reason to wait on getting those benefits for residents now.” Other concerns about the proposal include the decision to give Metro Water more responsibility (even though it was recently the subject of fiscal scrutiny from state regulators), as well as the decision to leave WeGo — the city’s public transit system — out of the new Department of Transportation, at least for now. “There’s just no way the public works department right now could be ‘rebranded’ into a Department of Transportation,” says Councilmember Freddie O’Connell, chair of the Traffic, Parking and Transportation Committee. “It’s going to be way more than a rebranding before we’re at a point where we’re delivering full transportation services that span transit, biking, walking and motorists. Our Department of Public Works right now is at least a full decade behind where it needs to be to move in this direction.” EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

On Monday, Davidson County moved into phase 1C of the COVID-19 vaccine distribution plan, the largest cohort in the immunization rollout. Increased supply and lower-than-expected demand in earlier phases prompted the move, which allows expectant mothers and people with health conditions that increase susceptibility to severe illness — such as diabetes and obesity — to receive the shot. State and local officials also clarified to Pith’s Diana Leyva that immigration status is not considered in vaccine eligibility. … The Associated Press reported over the weekend that the state panel charged with developing the vaccine rollout plan “acknowledged that prison inmates in the state were high-risk, but concluded that prioritizing them for inoculation could be a ‘public relations nightmare.’ ” And so inmates were ranked last for vaccines, despite a handful of Tennessee prisons having such a high rate of infection that they were listed among the worst hot spots for the virus earlier in the pandemic. As Betsy Phillips writes, that puts not just people who are incarcerated at the prisons at risk, but also people who work there: “If we want to effectively end the pandemic, we need leadership that operates dispassionately. If large groups of people who can’t socially distance are a high risk for COVID, then all large groups of people who can’t socially distance should have been at the top of the vaccine list — not just for their own sakes, but for all of ours.” … Metro Nashville and the family of Daniel Hambrick have reached agreement on a $2.25 million settlement. The negotiations stemmed from a civil suit filed by Hambrick’s mother, Vickie Hambrick, in the wake of the 2018 shooting of her son by Nashville police officer Andrew Delke. Delke faces a first-degree murder charge for the slaying. “While money can never make up for the loss of Daniel’s life, we are proud to have delivered some measure of justice for Daniel’s family,” Hambrick family attorneys Joy Kimbrough and Kyle Mothershead say. … Tennessee Republicans are targeting technology firms and social media companies with a series of new bills that experts and stakeholders argue run afoul of federal authority. Among the proposals are efforts to prohibit social media platforms from including political and religious speech limitations in user agreements, prohibit the removal of a political candidate’s social media account and ban government entities from using social media platforms that regulate political speech. As First Amendment expert G.S. Hans tells our Stephen Elliott: “The First Amendment applies to the government and what it can do or not do when regulating speech. It doesn’t have very much to say about what private actors like social media companies are prevented or prohibited from doing, because it’s targeted at government action. And social media companies are not government actors.” NASHVILLESCENE.COM/PITHINTHEWIND EMAIL: PITH@NASHVILLESCENE.COM TWEET: @PITHINTHEWIND

NASHVILLE SCENE | MARCH 11 – MARCH 17, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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nashvillescene.com | MARCH 11 – MARCH 17, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE

TH E

FOOD ISSUE

Surveying some of Nashville’s best-known chefs, improving your dining-at-home experience and more

ord knows most of us have spent plenty of time in our home kitchens over these past 12 months and change. Your old

pals at the Scene even managed to create and publish a cookbook, Nourish Nashville, inspired by our time cooking from home while in lockdown. (Shameless plug: Visit nourishnashville.com to get your hands on a copy of that.) Now, as the city — and the rest of the country — eases its way toward loosened restrictions and low COVID-19 case rates, the Scene decided to talk to some local food-scene experts about how the past year has gone, examine some ways to make your home-dining experience better and more. Our annual Food Issue comes in four parts. First, we survey some of Nashville’s most notable chefs — Maneet Chauhan, Margot McCormack, Kahlil Arnold and many more — about socially distanced dining, cooking from home and foodand-drink pivots. We also take a look at local CSAs, highlight a handful of Nashville’s takeand-bake meals, and get the dish on four local

PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

kitchenware purveyors.

RED PERCH’S PAELLA

NASHVILLE SCENE | MARCH 11 – MARCH 17, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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The Chefs’ Guide to Eating in Nashville 13 chefs tell us what they love to pick up, scarf down or try out when they’re going stir-crazy BY ASHLEY BRANTLEY

WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR FAVORITE TAKEOUT

OVER THE PAST YEAR?

NEWTON AND NGUYEN: Redheaded Stranger for

ARNOLD: Locust. The pork dumplings are

crunch wraps and green-chili cheeseburgers. Folk for pizzas and veggie-forward dishes. SINGTO: Cheddar’s spinach dip! I’m a huge fan of fast food and chain restaurants. WEGER: East Side Banh Mi. Gracie’s Big Salad with tofu [papaya, pickles, fried shallots, citrus-soy vinaigrette]; any of their veg specials; and always the gluten-free cookie! SURTI: Deg Thai’s new spot on Nolensville is incredible. I get tom yum or kra prao moo [stir fry with pork, holy basil, garlic, chilis, Thai-fried egg]. Their chili tray also has some of the best spicy condiments in town.

amazing!

CHAUHAN: Thai Esane’s drunken noodle, basil eggplant and Esane sausage [housemade, seasoned with dill and lemongrass]. GALZIN: King Tut’s. The falafel is the best I’ve ever had, and the chicken shawarma is great. GRAY: Coneheads! HERNANDEZ: Black Dynasty. Back-alley ramen hits the spot and takes the edge off. JAKSIC: Everything at Locust, and the potato focaccia at St. Vito Focacciaria [fontina, potato cream, breadcrumb]. KALOKOH: The pupusas at La Esquina Pupuseria Salvadorena are so flavorful. Bailey & Cato’s has the best ribs and soul food in the city. McCORMACK: Kien Giang for pho or bun. Cafe Rakka for baba ganoush or chicken on the sajj [tenderloins in saffron, herbs, spices and yogurt].

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE SOCIALLY DISTANT DINING SPOT? ARNOLD: The City House bungalows are pure genius.

CHAUHAN: Hop Springs brewery on 83 acres [in Murfreesboro]. There are so many fun,

socially distanced things to do: beer park, live concerts, dog park, disc golf. It’s one of my favorite spots to socialize safely. [Note: Chauhan is a co-owner of Hop Springs.] GRAY: Riddim N Spice! HERNANDEZ: Roberta’s Pizza at Urban Cowboy. Wood-fire heated patio, really good pizza and Negronis that don’t stop coming. JAKSIC: The outdoor igloos at Pinewood Kitchen & Mercantile have little gas stoves in them! Such a fun experience, right outside of Nashville in Nunnelly. McCORMACK: City House. Tandy [Wilson] has gone to great lengths to build an outdoor village to dine safely. NEWTON AND NGUYEN: Lou does a great job.

LOCUST’S DUMPLINGS

PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

DEG THAI’S TOM YUM

Kahlil Arnold, Arnold’s Country Kitchen, Arnold’s After Dark Maneet Chauhan, Chaatable, Chauhan Ale & Masala House, more Tony Galzin, Nicky’s Coal Fired Clint Gray, Slim & Husky’s Pizza Beeria Julio Hernandez, Maiz de la Vida Julia Jaksic, Roze Pony, Cafe Roze Kamal Kalokoh, Riddim N Spice Margot McCormack, Margot Cafe and Bar Chad Newton and Grace Nguyen, East Side Banh Mi Nina Singto, Thai Esane Mailea Weger, lou Vivek Surti, Tailor

PHOTO: DANIEL MEIGS

f you could go back and relive the past year, would you? Unless you’re Jeff Bezos or Major Biden, I’m guessing the answer is no. Personally, I wouldn’t choose that particular adventure, in part because if I read the word “unprecedented” one more time I’m going to donate my eyes to science while they’re still in my head. It’s been an odd year. You know this. You were there. But the year did give us some good things, especially in Nashville, especially when it comes to food. Bungalows, secret ramen, focaccia, pizza, focaccia-pizza! Chefs tried it all, which is why they know what works. We asked them to share their socially distanced favorites, so grab a mask and get to tasting. And be sure to check out last year’s chefs’ guide to eating in Nashville — it’s got dozens of spots that could use your support but may have been closed at press time last year.

Chefs Surveyed

nashvillescene.com | MARCH 11 – MARCH 17, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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PHOTOS: DANIEL MEIGS

NICKY’S COAL FIRED’S BAGEL

ST. VITO FOCACCIARIA

CITY HOUSE’S BUNGALOWS Very safe, plenty of space between tables, and food and wine that’s ridiculously good. WEGER: Redheaded Stranger’s patio! SURTI: Bastion did a great job moving the restaurant into the big bar and distancing guests. They’ve also had some cool collaborations with local cooks and pop-ups such as Hester, Champa Origins [Laotian cuisine] and Locust.

WHO HAD THE MOST CREATIVE FOOD-ANDDRINK PIVOT OVER THE PAST YEAR? ARNOLD: Nicky’s Coal Fired. Or Pancake Pantry opening for dinner!

GALZIN: Chopper did a great job staying engaged with take-home tiki kits. Also, City House brunch and pastry boxes. GRAY: Bar Sovereign adding Black Dynasty ramen!

HERNANDEZ: Red Perch paella pop-ups! I also love what the Richland Park Farmers’ Market has done. They’ve essentially created a new dining spot on Saturdays with FatBelly Pretzel, Maypop Sparking Water and dozens of other vendors. KALOKOH: Seeing Black Dynasty grind through all this — and at one of my favorite bars [Bar Sovereign] — was really cool. Best ramen in town, hands down. McCORMACK: Mr. Aaron’s Goods. Pasta, sauces, apples, cider, peaches, bagels — all amazing! NEWTON AND NGUYEN: This one has to go to

Nicky’s for pivoting and instantly having the best bagels in Nashville. The Calabrianchili cream cheese is bonkers. WEGER: Peninsula dumplings! SURTI: Tony and Caroline at Nicky’s did a phenomenal job. Caroline has been a leading voice for restaurants through her work with Tennessee Action for Hospitality. I basically lived off Nicky’s takeout during quarantine, whether it was meatballs, baked ziti, take-and-bake Sicilian pizzas, Italian-beef-sandwich kits or gelato. They did videos to keep guests interacting with cook-at-home kits, and they’re churning out the best bagels in town. It’s amazing what they did. Hats off.

WHAT’S THE MOST INTERESTING THING YOU COOKED AT HOME?

CHAUHAN: Roulette Cake from Bottom of the Pot by Naz Deravian. It’s a Swiss-roll cake made with rose water, and it’s so beautiful. I also did my own twist on baked pirashki, a yeasted dough from Russia. I filled it with spinach, cheese and, of course, Indian spices. GALZIN: [My wife] Caroline made a chocolate babka for Easter. Food highlight for the year. GRAY: Vegan shrimp scampi for my 2-yearold daughter. It was ... not great. HERNANDEZ: Tortillas! I made so many ter-

rible ones before I got consistent and brave enough to quit my job to sell them. KALOKOH: Curry lamb shoulder. I haven’t done it in a while, and one day I needed a nostalgic meal. One of my childhood faves. McCORMACK: Vegan jambalaya! Being a diehard carnivore, I never thought I’d be making so much vegetarian food, but my wife has decided to go plant-based, so I’m along for the ride. NEWTON AND NGUYEN: We smoked a Bear Creek Farm prime rib for Christmas. It came out great, but it needed horseradish cream to make it amazing, which Chad forgot to make. SINGTO: Lasagna, which I made Thai-style with basil-chicken stuffing. No cheese! WEGER: I order a lot of takeout, but my sous and pastry chefs have been tapping their maple tree and making their own maple syrup! SURTI: I got together with my pod of friends, and we made kubideh [ground beef] kebabs, shirazi salad [cucumber, tomato, lime] and tahdig [crispy Persian rice]. Of course, I had to make some mamana [Indian kebabs] as well. Throw in a bottle of tequila and you’ve got a really fun night!

WHAT OPENING OR FOOD-AND-DRINK “THING” ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO MOST IN 2021? ARNOLD: [Sean Brock’s] Audrey. Going to be amazing!

for takeout is going to need some sort of streamlining. GALZIN: St. Vito Focacciaria at the Vandyke B&B. Also rooftop day drinking this spring! Before winter, we went to Denim at The Joseph, and it was super fun. GRAY: Opening EG & Mc, our new cocktail bar on Jefferson Street! Come see us in May. HERNANDEZ: Arnold’s After Dark. I have high hopes it will be my new late-night chickenwing-and-beer spot. KALOKOH: Launching brunch at Riddim N Spice!!!!!! NEWTON AND NGUYEN: Audrey is going to be a complete game changer with lots of elements people have never even seen before. SINGTO: Opening two Thai Esane locations, in Brentwood and at Fifth + Broadway! WEGER: Sitting at the Folk bar, drinking all the wine Aria recommends. SURTI: The pandemic has shown a lot about how fragile and unsustainable the restaurant industry is. We’re going to have to reevaluate a lot of things: financing, leases, pay inequities between front and back of house, benefits, health, food safety, etc. This year, I hope we continue to embrace and cultivate diversity by encouraging new concepts like Mijo Gordito, Alebrije, Maiz de la Vida and Champa Origins. I hope we diversify our staff, acknowledge privilege and grow together, knowing that we can set the standard for what restaurants will be moving forward.

CHAUHAN: Hugs! But in terms of the food world, I always think about how technology

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

NASHVILLE SCENE | MARCH 11 – MARCH 17, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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Loving the Land

With CSA participation up during the pandemic, more Nashvillians are learning to utilize and appreciate local produce BY JENNIFER JUSTUS

efore Nancy Goodrich joined the community supported agriculture program at Green Door Gourmet, she wouldn’t dare eat a turnip or collard green. “Same with Brussels sprouts,” Goodrich says. “It smelled so bad. Who could possibly put them past their nose?” But as Goodrich got to know the farm, the produce and the land, her repertoire expanded. She picked up tips from the farm’s website and cooking classes — even standing in line at the farm store. “Try braising them with vinegar — not too much — with hot pepper,” someone told her about preparing Brussels sprouts. These bits of advice were game changers in the kitchen. Goodrich says that over the past pandemic-besieged year, she hasn’t visited a grocery store. She opts for some delivery, but mostly commits to spending 90 percent of her food budget at Green Door. She recognizes that this choice isn’t available to everyone, but as she noticed disruptions in our food system during the pandemic (such as an understandable loss of restaurant revenue for farmers), she wanted to do her part to support. “We did everything we could to get here,” Goodrich says of the farm. “I didn’t want to lose that option.” CSA programs like the one Goodrich participates in have no doubt increased in popularity over the past decade. CSAs allow customers to support local farmers and the local economy by committing to a fee up front in exchange for a regular “share” of what grows on the farm for that season. They also have the benefit of forming a closer relationship with the people growing their food. Another benefit? CSAs help make participants better cooks through exposure to a variety of seasonal offerings and education. Or as Goodrich puts it, “Mandatory produce that I would never buy in the store.” The same can be said for community gardens — plots of land where gardeners learn to grow food for personal consumption in proximity to one another, and where knowledge and resources can be exchanged. Both community gardens and CSA programs have experienced an increase in popularity in recent years, plus renewed interest during the pandemic as customers looked for alternative ways to eat and shop. Tasha Kennard, executive director of the Nashville Farmers’ Market, says farmers offering CSA options were “able to pivot quickly and maintain communication and service when markets across the country were closed due to COVID.” Farmers could leverage their relationships and focus more on meeting the changing needs through de-

livery or farm pickups. “They stood ready with contact lists, emails, texts and websites that helped them reach customers faster and effectively,” Kennard says. “And the trust factor was already there. The pandemic has brought about an increase in customers wanting to know where their food comes from, how it is grown and processed, et cetera, and therefore farmers in a position to grow more and have loyal customers referring them to others likely contributed to growth exceeding previous years.” As for Goodrich, she has long been a home cook who thinks of recipes more as “pattern than method.” When her three children were younger, she took advantage of bargains and learned to make use of what she had rather than follow cookbooks to the letter. But growing up in a city environment, she also says the connection she made to Green Door — initially through a class on preserving 10 years ago — rooted her in more significant ways to the agriculture of a place. “She taught us about soil and minerals,” Goodrich says of farmer and owner Sylvia Ganier. “I wasn’t in tune to that.” Goodrich recently made a turnip-andparsnip gratin with a bit of cream. She’s

learned to work with several varieties of pumpkins and gourds as she received them through the farm, and she now makes pumpkin pie from scratch that she gives to friends at Thanksgiving. “Who knew how to do that?” she says. These days Goodrich says she’s apt to have a freezer full of vegetables and pantry with canned tomatoes or peaches, which she’s learned to can through Green Door education. One of her favorite tricks at the moment is shredding and roasting cabbage to use in place of noodles. It’s a technique that came out of necessity with the CSA. “We would regularly get a head of cabbage the size of a soccer ball,” she says. “Roasting it offers a way to use it as a noodle base for dishes like stroganoff.” Cindy Wall is the founder of the Facebook group “Cooking through COVID-19” and a board member with The Nashville Food Project. (Full disclosure: I work for The Nashville Food Project.) Wall says her current CSA through the Food Project opened doors to new types of ingredients grown by local farmers who came to the United States as refugees from Bhutan and Burma. That might include Nepali mustard greens and bitter gourd alongside tomatoes, kale and radishes. “That experience has really made me a more versatile and curious cook — or at least I hope so!” Wall says. “Because I’ve encountered ingredients I knew little (or sometimes nothing) about, it’s always been a delightful weekly ‘rabbit hole’ of food research.” In terms of education, a Nashville Food Project program called Growing Together includes videos of farmers explaining the produce with each weekly CSA share. (All of the proceeds from the CSA go toward Bhutanese and Burmese farmers.) CSA programs across the board have stepped up their education in recent years. “I’ve had lots of CSAs over the years,

from a variety of farms,” Wall says. “And all of them helped make me a better, smarter and more disciplined cook. With a CSA, I can’t help but truly cook seasonally. And my cooking pivots from recipe-driven to ingredient-driven. That box every week centers what and when I’m cooking.” As CSAs have grown in popularity, so has participation in community gardens. Trap Garden, for example, has garnered a larger following in recent years and offers excellent education through videos and recipes that help connect folks to the land through food. The community garden program at The Nashville Food Project also expanded from about 70 families last year to 115 families growing their own food this year. Jawharrah Bahar has been part of the program at the garden behind McGruder Family Resource Center for the past four years, and she says participants often exchange recipes. “I’ve been able to create new dishes for my family,” Bahar says. The Brooklyn Heights Community Garden has been around for even longer. Nella Pearl Frierson, known as Ms. Pearl, started the garden 13 years ago as a way to keep her five daughters engaged with the outdoors, and these days it’s thriving like never before. Thanks to a recent grant, a team from Nashville Foodscapes has been working to help scale the garden up and offer a space for more learning. Still, after all these years, Ms. Pearl says the garden continues to help her learn and open her eyes to new ways of cooking. She has a new love for the versatility of butternut squash, which she includes in stir fries, savory soups with onion and garlic, or with cinnamon, butter and sugar for something sweet. “You come as you are,” Ms. Pearl says of the garden. “You can’t help but transform yourself. Just show up. Love the land.” EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

GREEN DOOR GOURMET CSA BOXES

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Taking and Baking Five local take-and-bake dishes that are the next best thing to cooking it from scratch yourself

PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND; DISHES BY SALT CERAMICS

BY ERICA CICCARONE, LAURA HUTSON HUNTER, ELIZABETH JONES, D. PATRICK RODGERS AND STEPHEN TRAGESER

OTAKU RAMEN KITS $28-$40 otakuramen.com Ramen is best slurped when piping hot, so ordering it as takeout doesn’t always hit the spot. Otaku Ramen’s kits (which feed two people apiece) are the answer. We tried two dishes — the tantanmen and the shiitake maz and cheese. The ingredients were super fresh, and we liked being able to control how much spice we added. Each kit comes with a QR code you can use to pull up instructions on your phone, including a how-to video. Just boil the noodles, sauté your toppings, heat up your broth and slice an egg, and you’ll be in slurpy heaven. I may have yelled “Otaku to the rescue!” at my husband on a particularly dreary day. ERICA CICCARONE

ALFRESCO PASTA’S CHICKENAND-SPINACH CANNELLONI $10 alfrescopasta.com Founded in Nashville 21 years ago this spring, Alfresco Pasta can be found in locations all around the city and beyond — including at various farmers markets, Tower Market and both Turnip Truck locations. Made with fresh ingredients (many of them sourced from local farms), Alfresco’s lasagna Bolognese, butternut squash ravioli and adorable heart-shaped Italian cheese ravioli are all primo. But my personal favorite is the takeand-bake chicken-and-spinach cannelloni, a divine concoction of meat, cheese, veggies and big cylindrical pasta tubes that, along with a homemade salad, makes a great dinner for two (or, perhaps, dinner for one extraordinarily hungry alt-weekly editor-in-chief). The instructions call for 20 to 40 minutes in a 350-degree oven, but in order to get the cheese on top nice and melty, you’ll probably want to bump the temp up a smidge or leave it in for closer to 45. Mangia! D. PATRICK RODGERS

EDLEY’S BAR-BQUE SHEPHERD’S PIE $25 edleysbbq.com Dishes were scattered across every surface in the kitchen of the house my girlfriend and I just moved into, and sustenance that we could get by just throwing a pre-filled catering pan in the oven was a godsend. Our salvation this rainy night: Edley’s twist on the classic shepherd’s pie, which substitutes succulent, smoked-to-perfection pulled pork in place of the traditional ground meat cooked in gravy. Since ovens vary, it took bumping ours up from the recommended 350 degrees to 400 for the final few minutes to get the shredded cheese and mashed potatoes over the meat and vegetables to turn a perfect golden-brown. Each pie is good for about six portions. The only thing that might make it better is adding one more flavor via a side of baked beans, since there’s no herbaceous gravy inside. Aw shucks, guess we’ll have to try it again! STEPHEN TRAGESER

COPPER KETTLE’S POT ROAST, GREEN BEANS AND SWEET POTATO CASSEROLE

MANGIA’S LEMON ROSEMARY CHICKEN WITH CAESAR SALAD AND FOCACCIA BREAD

$40 copperkettlenashville.com Copper Kettle is a tried-andtrue comfort-food staple for Nashvillians. Still, I rarely find myself thinking about ordering it in advance. But it turns out a random Tuesday night in pandemic times is actually a perfect time for an all-out pot roast dinner with all the fixins — I was immediately transported to simpler times with family gatherings and home-cooked casseroles. The option to order a main dish and sides (enough for four to six people) is like having an in-home meat-and-three, and I loved being able to utilize my favorite ’70s-era casserole dishes. When I pulled the pot roast and veggies, sweet potato casserole and fresh rolls out of the oven, I felt a little like Mary Tyler Moore. My takeaway: Ordering take-and-bake dinners is less of a substitute for a night out and more of an inspiration to keep preparing meals this way, even after lockdown ends. Here’s hoping the take-and-bake phenomenon replaces food-truck overkill post-pandemia. LAURA

$24-$49 mangianashville.com Mangia’s lemon rosemary chicken is tasty, its skin crisping up nicely after a little stretch in your home kitchen’s oven (20 minutes at 425 degrees). Don’t forget to pour the juices from the pan over the chicken — and then dip your bread in them. The flavors are subtle, the lemon not overwhelmingly citrusy, and permeate every bite of the chicken. This, paired with the focaccia of my dreams, filled my house with the sweet aroma of rosemary. If you ever need to fool guests into thinking you’ve done the work yourself, this one definitely carries that fromscratch smell. Monster croutons are piled high on Mangia’s Caesar salad, which is topped with a tangy Caesar dressing. The portion we bought was for two ($24), but it could easily serve three or four adults. A thick, creamy, pistachiodipped cannoli, which is rich but not too sweet, finished off our feast. ELIZABETH JONES

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

HUTSON HUNTER

NASHVILLE SCENE | MARCH 11 – MARCH 17, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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601 Church Street Nashville, TN 37219

615-915-1474 EatCopperBranch.com nashvillescene.com | MARCH 11 – MARCH 17, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE

Ware It Out Stock your cabinets with ‘useful art’ from these four local kitchenware purveyors

COUTELIER

BY CHRIS CHAMBERLAIN

any of us who rediscovered our home kitchens during the pandemic spent some time cleaning out our cabinets. If you’re one of those folks, you might have found some surprises. (“Why do we have two salad spinners?” “Isn’t that the wooden spoon that got chewed up in the blender when we were making margaritas five years ago?”) Hopefully you’ve done a little culling of your culinary toolkit, but why not go one step further and gear up your kitchen with some really special utensils sourced from local providers? Investing in proper high-quality tools in the kitchen and beautiful serving vessels will pay off in many ways. Cooking is more enjoyable, quicker and safer when you’ve got the right accoutrements, and some studies have suggested that food is actually perceived as being more appetizing when it is served on pretty plates with fancy flatware. So if you’re looking for somewhere to spend a little of that stimulus check, here are some excellent local options to up your game in the kitchen.

so that’s the best time to go shopping for wooden spatulas, spoons, serving boards, honey dippers and other various utensils that are as beautiful as they are useful in the kitchen.

still the best way to acquire one of their gorgeous and utilitarian knives, as the wait time for custom orders has already extended out to late 2023! If you check out their wares on their website (boothillblades.com), it’s easy to see why lead times are so extended. Jared Thatcher is a true master of steel, creating all sorts of sizes and styles of cutlery, ranging from hunting knives to parers to popular Japanese varieties like Santoku and Nakiri using forged Damascus steel to create beautiful rippled patterns along the sides of the blades. He will also apply a unique mustard patina to some of his standard inventory and by request on custom orders. Slightly easier to acquire is the handsome and functional wooden kitchenware produced by Thatcher’s wife, Kylee. She too loads her current inventory into the online ordering page at the beginning of the month,

The second outpost of this New Orleansbased cutlery and kitchenware store quickly became a favorite hangout for local kitchen pros, and not just because of the helpful jobopenings board they keep by the front door. This cozy East Nashville shop offers professional-level cutlery, including many varieties imported from some of Japan’s master bladesmiths like Mcusta, Moritaka, Yamahide and others. Coutelier also offers knife repair and sharpening services at reasonable prices, with quick turnaround to return your favorite tools to like-new condition. In addition to knives, Coutelier stocks other fun and exotic kitchen tools — like premium barware, mandolins, knife rolls, sharpening stones, Japanese konro grills and the Binchotan charcoal to fire them, slicers, dicers and pasta tools. Coutelier is an amazing place to browse and dream, and while they do accept walk-ins, during the duration of the pandemic they also offer shopping by appointment and curbside pickup service.

SALT CERAMICS AND CAROLINE CERCONE POTTERY

While you might not have the cooking chops of Sean Brock or Philip Krajeck (spoiler alert: you don’t), you can at least serve your culinary creations on plateware created by the same artisans who supply the dishes at their vaunted restaurants. Jess Cheatham is the craftsperson behind Salt Ceramics, and has supplied the bowls, plates and cups that you see when dining at spots like Rolf and Daughters, Folk, Cafe Roze, Roze Pony, Noelle Hotel and Firepot Tea Bar. She also sells directly to consumers at her website (saltceramics.com), where you can peruse her colorful pieces. While her creations look like artwork, they are designed to be sturdy enough for everyday use and can actually run through the dishwasher. (Of course, handwashing is always preferable.) Hand-thrown on a wheel, coated with a food-safe glaze and fired in an infernally hot kiln, Salt Ceramics are meant to be used, not just displayed on a shelf. Cheatham also collaborates with other artists who decorate her pottery, creating whimsical incense burners, planters, canisters, vases, tea sets and more. If you’ve ever eaten at Silo, Husk, The Catbird Seat, Butcher & Bee or Earnest Bar & Hideaway, you might notice a similar-

BOOTHILL BLADES

Located just across the Kentucky border in LaFayette, BootHill Blades has become a very popular purveyor of custom knives and kitchen tools for Middle Tennessee cooks. So popular, in fact, that they often sell out of their inventory of artisanal blades within hours of dropping their monthly newsletter into the inboxes of their fans. Being quick on the trigger when you click on that email is BOOTHILL BLADES

COUTELIER

NASHVILLE SCENE | MARCH 11 – MARCH 17, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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ity in the aesthetic of their serviceware. That’s because Caroline Cercone created pieces for all of those restaurants (as well as at Brock’s upcoming Audrey), featuring natural tones in the glaze that Los Angeles Times restaurant critic Bill Addison accurately described as “freckled earthenware.” Her earthy palette and use of natural materials in her glazes — like the ash from her fireplace — reflect a dedication to regional sourcing, as well as a bit of Japanese minimalism. Cercone has studied Japanese folk art extensively, and the

Asian influences make lovely contributions to her works, which have become quite popular at local farm-to-table restaurants. Like at Salt Ceramics, Cercone also creates plates, cups, dishes, bowls and teapots that are meant to be used, and they are quite appropriate for your own dinner table. Microwavable and dishwasher-safe, these are functional items that can be passed on through the generations like a beloved piece of cast iron. Consider it “useful art.” EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

GERMANTOWN PUB IS THE NEIGHBORHOOD BAR YOU NEED IN YOUR LIFE!

CAROLINE CERCONE POTTERY

The “Nashville Hot Burger” is ever ything and the “Trifecta Wings” have a fierce following. The opento-close Beer & Shot Special is the best deal in town, and Patio Dining makes social distancing a breeze!

OPEN 11AM - 11PM SUN - THUR 11AM-12AM FRIDAY AND SAT. 708 MONROE ST, NASHVILLE, TN 37208 (615) 457-2145 SALT CERAMICS

nashvillescene.com | MARCH 11 – MARCH 17, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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1800 21st Ave S, Nashville, TN | 231 Public Square, Franklin, TN Dine-In Pick-Up Delivery

Bourbon Street Blues and Boogie Bar Offering authentic Cajun cuisine & live music every night

220 Printers Alley, Nashville, TN 37201 | bourbonstreetblues.com 16

NASHVILLE SCENE | MARCH 11 – MARCH 17, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

Bowie’s Nashville

Classic American cuisine that will have your taste buds rockin’

174 3rd Ave N, Nashville, TN 37201 | bowiesnashville.com

CRITICS’ PICKS [ANYTHING GROWS]

SHOP THE ONLINE PERENNIAL PLANT SALE

You’ve heard it from me before: Gardening is good. Making physical contact with the soil can be a real mood booster, decreasing your stress as you soak up vitamin D from the old sun. A few vegetable beds, a strip of pollinator-friendly plants and a small plot of earth where I toss sunflower seeds work wonders for my wellbeing, and I am absolutely stoked to slice through some turf with my new grub hoe. But maybe hacking sod to bits isn’t quite your thing, and growing veg is too big a commitment. The Perennial Plant Society of Middle Tennessee offers a way to dip your toe in. Each year, the nonprofit holds a huge plant sale that is the place to get your hands on some healthy transplants. It’s going online this month, so you can buy all the plants your heart desires. Perennials come back to life each year — bigger, bushier and stronger. Plant them in a weed-free area, water well the first year (especially in hot months), and watch them grow. According to the society’s list of likely plants for sale, you should be able to order cheerful phlox carolina, billowy aster oblongifolius and regal irises. A row of orderly hostas will spruce up your yard, and others will draw friendly visitors. Bronze fennel is a host plant for swallowtail butterflies, asclepias tuberosa hosts monarchs, and echinacea is beloved by songbirds. If your yard or balcony is shaded, go for coral bells, the colorful cultivars of which range from “guacamole” to “lemon love” and “fire alarm.” Watch out for plants that might take over — mint family, I’m looking at you — and consider them for pots and planters. As you add some life to your yard, you’ll also be helping the earth. Growing perennials can actually sequester carbon, drawing it out of the atmosphere and getting it into the soil where it belongs — which makes me feel super powerful. Just be sure to use compost instead of synthetic fertilizer (get some at any independently owned garden store in town), and mulch around your plants to

keep them moist and weed-free. Dig into the plant list and prepare for the sale, which goes live on March 11. You’ll pick up your plants at the Ellington Agricultural Center (440 Hogan Road) from April 9 to 11. Find out more at ppsmtn.org. Thursday, March 11, via The Perennial Plant Society of Middle Tennessee ERICA CICCARONE MUSIC

SHOPPING

SHOP THE ONLINE PERENNIAL PLANT SALE

[DIVING WOMAN]

WATCH JAPANESE BREAKFAST LIVESTREAM

Fans of Michelle Zauner, the space-pop explorer who performs under the name Japanese Breakfast, have a lot to look forward to this year. On April 20, Zauner will release her first book, Crying in H Mart, a memoir based on her heartbreaking New Yorker essay about her struggle to remain connected to her Korean heritage after

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her mother died from cancer. In June, she why one of the most exciting developments will release a new Japanese Breakfast in Nashville’s art world has been the record, Jubilee, the long-awaited follow-up promise of MOCAN — that is, the Museum to 2017’s critically acclaimed Soft Sounds of Contemporary Art in Nashville. So far, From Another Planet. The album’s first it’s just been a series of pop-up exhibits, single, “Be Sweet,” dropped just last but maybe that’s all we need to get week, and it’s a lively synth-laced us by until the world gets back dance jam that recalls so much to gathering safely in galleries EDITOR’S NOTE: AS A RESPONSE TO THE that was great about ’80s pop and drinking free wine. The ONGOING COVID-19 PANDEMIC, music. It also shows us a more exhibition — “Radical” WE’VE CHANGED THE FOCUS OF playful side of Zauner. Soft Thoughts — has questionable THE CRITICS’ PICKS SECTION TO Sounds From Another Planet punctuation, but that won’t INCLUDE ACTIVITIES YOU CAN PARTAKE IN WHILE YOU’RE AT is often melancholic, with her stop me from being among the HOME. shoegazy soundscapes evoking first to see what the organizers feelings of isolation. What other are calling an exploration of “how surprises is Jubilee hiding? Find science, sustainability, and socialism out on Friday, March 12, when Japanese can and will contribute to us creating Breakfast performs songs from the new a new, functional, and citizen-oriented record with a full band. You have to have a system.” Heady stuff. The 20 artists Bandsintown Plus account to watch — it’s showing work in the pop-up include Nuveen $99 for the year or $9.99 per month — but Barwari, Jordan Benton, Chalet Comellaswith a seven-day trial, you can enjoy the Baker, Libby Danforth, Dan Derwelis, Ali show for free and cancel within the week. El-Chaer, Jazlyn Eubanks, Marlos E’van, (But before you cancel, you should know Ashanté Kindle, Laura Klopfenstein, The Microphones have a Bandsintown Quynh Lam, Veronica Leto, Vivian Liddell, Plus performance on March 27, so it might Nana Maiolini, Nadia Nizamudin, Maya be worth it to hang on to it for the month. Shoham, Clint Sleeper, Suzy Slykin, Alison The Microphones!) Friday, March 12, via Underwood and Woke3. Visit mocanashville. Bandsintown MEGAN SELING org for details. March 13-May 29 at 1004 Gallatin Ave. LAURA HUTSON HUNTER [NEW RADICALS]

SEE MOCAN’S ‘RADICAL’ THOUGHTS POP-UP

The past year has given us plenty — plenty — of time to reflect on what we miss about the status quo, and also consider what might need to evolve. After much personal research, I’m here to tell you that seeing art in person is something that cannot be duplicated on Zoom or Instagram. That’s

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ART

W E E K L Y

[PIE MAINTENANCE]

CELEBRATE PI DAY WITH PIE

Much like the number pi, my love for pie is endless. So on Sunday, March 14 — aka 3-14, aka Pi Day — let’s embrace the totally unnecessary but very much appreciated excuse to eat some pie. Any kind of pie will do — sweet pie, savory pie, pot pie, pizza pie. CaityPies is celebrating the

JAPANESE BREAKFAST

nashvillescene.com | MARCH 11 – MARCH 17, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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CRITICS’ PICKS

THEATER

MEGAN SELING [GALS ABOUT TOWN]

STREAM GALLATHEA/GALATEA AT RED BULL THEATER

FILM

What could a 433-year-old play possibly have to say about modern concepts of love, identity and personal acceptance? More than you might think. New York’s Red Bull Theater explores these ideas and more with a pair of benefit readings. First up is John Lyly’s comedy Gallathea, which was first performed for Queen Elizabeth I in 1588. Billed as a “queer love story set inside the landscape of classical myth,” the story follows two young women who — in order to avoid being sacrificed to a sea monster — are disguised as boys and sent into hiding, where they meet and fall in love. Red Bull pairs the piece with Galatea — a new play by MJ Kaufman that offers “a trans love story, set against the backdrop of a climate crisis.” Audiences can tune in for an interactive panel discussion featuring members of both creative teams along with theater scholars on March 25. All these programs are free, but there’s a pay-what-you-can ticket option. Visit redbulltheater.com for details. 6:30 p.m. March 15 and 22 via Red Bull Theater AMY STUMPFL [WHAT’S REMEMBERED LIVES]

BUILD YOUR OWN STREAMING CHLOÉ ZHAO FILM FESTIVAL Can you feel that? It’s a strange and

[MISTY BLUE]

LISTEN TO WILMA BURGESS

Born in Orlando, Fla., in 1939, country singer Wilma Burgess aspired to be a gym teacher before she hit Nashville in

[MIS EN QUEEN]

STREAM SHORT FILMS VIA LUNAFEST

When I attend a film festival, I’m always sure to check out the shorts. We’re less likely to see big names attached to these diminutive gems, but shorts allow us to sample new and underrepresented directors who are cutting their teeth with the pared-down form. For 20 years, LunaFest has traveled around the country showing short films made by women and raising money for causes that benefit us. The fest is online this year, and the slate includes seven short documentaries that are worth a watch. “Overexposed: Filming an Arctic Odyssey” is the companion short to director Holly Morris’ upcoming feature documentary Exposure. In the short, we’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at Morris’ crew as they document an expedition of women from the Arab World and the West as they attempt to ski to the North Pole. In Meg Shutzer’s “Knocking Down the Fences,” we meet softball player A.J. Andrews, the first woman to win the Rawlings Gold Glove Award. Through Andrews’ story, we see the gender disparities in professional sports. “Betye Saar: Taking Care of Business,” by Christine Turner, takes us into the studio of the titular artist. Now 93 years old, Saar makes assemblages that are cosmic, political and personal. Seeing her at work in her studio is a rare treat. Also be on the lookout for “Connection,” a short by Tracy Nguyen-Chung and Ciara Lacy that features a flyfisher named Autumn Harry, who is a member of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe. LunaFest is hosted virtually by a slew of nonprofit organizations around the country that support women and girls, so your ticket will support their work. A pass is around $25 depending on the host organization. Through May 7 via lunafest.org ERICA CICCARONE [BOOB TUBE]

LISTEN TO THE TOO LONG; DIDN’T WATCH PODCAST

going to check out Breaking Bad or Parks and Recreation now that they’ve ended their run — but they just haven’t done it yet. Thankfully, the podcast Too Long; Didn’t Watch saves you the trouble of binging a whole run of some of prestige TV’s finest titles by just concentrating on the first and last episodes. Host and Rolling Stone TV critic Alan Sepinwall brings in a special guest each week to watch the pilot and finale of an acclaimed boob-tube classic. Afterward, they discuss whether or not those two episodes make the show worth delving into. Sepinwall has already had discussions with Jon Hamm over Gossip Girl, Alison Brie over Game of Thrones, Lena Dunham over Cheers, Kumail Nanjiani over Veronica Mars, and lovebirds Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman over that oneseason favorite My So-Called Life. Consider this podcast a consumer guide on what revered shows deserve binging. Find it on Spotify, iTunes or wherever you listen to podcasts. CRAIG D. LINDSEY MUSIC

FILM

foreign feeling — I think they call it hope. With the vaccine rollout continuing and case rates slowly but steadily declining, there’s hope that activities like theatrical moviegoing could approach something like normal this summer. Even so, we’ll file more of our build-your-own-streaming-fest Critics’ Picks until that day comes. This week, let’s focus on the woman who Vulture recently described as “the most sought-after director in Hollywood” — recent Golden Globe Best Director recipient Chloé Zhao. With just three feature films under her belt, it won’t be too tough to get through the Beijing native’s entire catalog, beginning with her 2015 debut Songs My Brothers Taught Me (available to rent for $4 via Amazon Prime, YouTube and iTunes). Set in South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Songs features what critic Aaron Hillis calls “undeniably authentic” performances and cinematography that “could make Terrence Malick stand to give a slow clap.” Indeed, fans of Malick will also want to queue up 2018’s Badlands-set The Rider (also $4 via the aforementioned streaming services), which follows a young rodeo star dealing with the fallout of a serious injury. Finally, bring your streaming fest home with this year’s devastating Nomadland (available via Hulu), based loosely on journalist Jessica Bruder’s 2017 nonfiction book of the same name. Centering on the phenomenon of middle-aged and older folks living transient lives in the American West, Nomadland is a remarkable slice of Americana featuring performances from real-life nomads — not to mention a gobsmackingly poignant turn from Frances McDormand, who produced the film and approached Zhao to adapt and direct. Somehow, Zhao is only the second woman to win the Golden Globe for Best Director. (Babs Streisand was the first woman to take home the trophy in that category with 1983’s Yentl.) That gets you all caught up on the Zhao catalog, though her contribution to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Eternals, is set for release in the fall. And considering how things are going, maybe we can all cram elbowto-elbow to watch that one together in the cineplexes — there is hope. D. PATRICK RODGERS MUSIC

occasion by offering a plethora of flavors, all of which will be available at Citizen Market on Friday and Saturday, as well as the Richland Park Farmers’ Market on Saturday from 10 a.m. until noon. The weekend menu includes Key Lime, Coffee Chess, Miso Fudge, Peanut Butter Mud, Banoffee, and Strawberry Champagne. If you can’t decide, grab a FrankenPie, a whole pie made up of one slice of each flavor. (Those often go quickly, so get there early.) Buttermilk Sky Pie Shop in Franklin has a holiday special too — get mini four-inch pies for just $3.14 each. And Baked on 8th is always good for a slice of something too. You can order online for same-day pickup Saturday from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Pro tip: If they have peanut butter pie, grab it. It’s a Reese’s lover’s dream come true with peanut butter ganache and fluffy, creamy peanut butter filling piled into a chocolate cookie crust and topped with honey whipped cream.

PODCAST

BUTTERMILK SKY PIE SHOP

the early 1960s. That was the heyday of the super-smooth Nashville subgenre called countrypolitan, and Burgess had the kind of voice — a little distant, and a little unsure — that seemed tailor-made for its style of late-night musings. Working with producer Owen Bradley in the mid-’60s, Burgess turned out a stream of singles that helped define countrypolitan, including her 1966 reading of songwriter Bob Montgomery’s “Misty Blue,” a song revived as a soul hit a decade later by Dorothy Moore. Burgess, who died in Nashville in 2003, sang with understated emotion, and she’s also notable as a trailblazing lesbian in country music. By all accounts, Burgess’ orientation was an open secret in the business, and she seems to have, quite simply, not given a damn about any potential fallout. Good for her. She also opened the city’s first lesbian bar — The Hitching Post — in the late ’80s, after the hits dried up. Burgess fits into country history alongside Patsy Cline, and she had her own cooled-out style. EDD HURT

[IT’S ONLY A MOVIE]

STREAM SOME MORE GREAT MUSIC DOCUMENTARIES

Although I still recommend listening to music as the best way to appreciate it, I definitely enjoy watching music documentaries. I sat through the many hours of History of the Eagles (Amazon Prime), and didn’t hate the group any more than I did before I started. Music docs often do a good job of explaining the appeal of wellknown figures, as is the case with Lana Wilson’s 2020 film Miss Americana (Netflix), about Taylor Swift’s struggles within the music business. Meanwhile, Sacha Jenkins’ 2019 four-part docuseries Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men (Amazon Prime) gathers together scads of previously unseen footage of the great hip-hop group. One of the advantages of living in our media-saturated age is the sheer breadth of music docs, so if you’re like me, you might enjoy Lee Cogswell’s 2013 film Keep On Keepin’ On: A Short Film About Soul (Vimeo), which features semi-obscure 1970s soul singer Nolan Porter. It turns out that Porter, who died in Los Angeles in February, garnered a few hits in the ’70s, including the great 1973 single “If I Could Only Be Sure” — a tune beloved by English Northern soul enthusiasts. In other words, Porter’s music is worth your time, as is the avant-jazz singing and composing of English rocker Robert Wyatt. A 1973 accident made Wyatt — formerly the drummer for prog pioneers Soft Machine — a paraplegic, but his subsequent work is superb. He’s the subject of Francesco Di Loreto and Carlo Bevilacqua’s brisk hour-long 1998 film Little Red Robin Hood (YouTube). Wyatt is a major musician, but he never became as rich as Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood, who is profiled in Mike Figgis’ 2019 Ronnie Wood: Somebody Up There Likes Me (available to rent via Apple TV). The movie makes Wood even more likeable than you might think, and that humanizing element is part of the allure of music documentaries. EDD HURT

Let’s keep it real here: There are too many gotdamn shows to watch these days. There are also too many gotdamn shows to watch that have already stopped pumping out new episodes. You know there are folks out there who said that they were

NASHVILLE SCENE | MARCH 11 – MARCH 17, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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3/8/21 5:12 PM

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EDDIE FERRELL

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TREE OF LIFE

On mourning, when the rituals of death have been stolen by the circumstances of the year

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t was COVID-19 that brought me again to the place where I will be buried. I find myself cringing at the term COVID-19 — abrupt and medical, punctuating sentences that should sway and dance like an ebbing tide. On a bitter Saturday morning, my mother, my brother and I found ourselves once more in the town to which all Ridley lives inevitably circle back. The relative whose service we were attending was my grandfather’s cousin, a woman of the world if there ever was one, who touched every ocean in a fever to leave Murfreesboro behind, only to find herself buried there. A small mix of mystery relatives and familiar faces gathered at the family plot, spilling out from the green-canopied tent in an effort to keep our distance, scattered like marbles left out in the rain. It was a stark contrast to the funerals of our past — completed chapters of a sweeping Southern saga, tasting of sweet river water and borne out by old Baptist hymns. But no matter the venue, weather or circumstances, you send all Ridleys off the same way: with music, with words and with drama. Before that Saturday, I had visited the plot only a handful of times. I’d stayed up the street at my great-grandmother’s house many times over the past four years, and each night as I lay in bed, I wondered how long it would take me to get to the cemetery. I often tried to will myself to dress and walk the half-mile to see my father’s grave for the first time — to feel the soft dirt as I sink to my knees; to run my fingers over the name he shares with my brother and the date that has punctuated every year since. But I never did. I chose instead to envision our family plot the way I thought it should be. My grandmother and grandfather holding hands beneath the earth, my father forever gazing up at the great magnolia that braces the Ridley headstone, watching the seasons change. In my mind, it was not a place of devastation, but somewhere I could speak aloud to the ghosts whose eulogies I’d memorized. We left Nashville early on the morning of the service. I carried in my lap the bouquet we brought to lay on my father’s grave, a mess of hydrangeas and calla lilies and flowers I couldn’t identify, though he would’ve been able to. We arrived and got out of the car, following Mama. His grave was just a few strides from the pavement, beside my grandmother’s. Among the hundreds of other headstones, they were

I CHOSE INSTEAD TO ENVISION OUR FAMILY PLOT THE WAY I THOUGHT IT SHOULD BE. MY GRANDMOTHER AND GRANDFATHER HOLDING HANDS BENEATH THE EARTH, MY FATHER FOREVER GAZING UP AT THE GREAT MAGNOLIA THAT BRACES THE RIDLEY HEADSTONE, WATCHING THE SEASONS CHANGE. like two blades of grass in a yard. The magnolia tree and the rest of the Ridleys were hundreds of feet away, but the distance was nothing, as long as I knew where to go. Mama touched the stone as we set the flowers down, all hoping for rain so they might last just a few days longer. An hour later, as my uncle stood to deliver the eulogy, a tear turned cold against my cheek. I cried for him, in years past and now again, for shouldering alone the burden of outliving everyone else. And that morning, underneath the magnolia, his hands broke my heart. They shook as he drew the paper from his pocket, and I could still feel the same tremble in my own hands from four years earlier. So much having to do with the ritual of death had already been stolen by the circumstances of the year. The grieving of each individual life lost is buried under endless reports of more, and the loss for each family made to seem less significant by the whole. For my family, there had been no last bedside moment, no pulpit upon which to rest the page. There was no reception or dramatic church organ, and the absence of touch and intimacy in the age of a pandemic made a cold day colder. But, by God, there were words, and on them a Ridley was carried away. That night, it rained. The heavens opened up over Nashville and Murfreesboro, saturating the ground. Creeks swelled over their banks and ran into open meadows as Tennessee cried for what she had lost. But the next morning, as the sun rose over the land of the living and the fields of the dead, dawn burnished magnolia leaves gold. The tombstone flowers we laid the day before perked up, turning their petaled heads to the full light of a new day. EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

NASHVILLE SCENE | MARCH 11 – MARCH 17, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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THEATER

TALKBACK

With conVERGEnce, Verge Theater Company imagines a more equitable theater industry BY ERICA CICCARONE

play ends. The lights come on. Spectators gather their belongings. And then, a crew member brings several chairs onstage, and the actors and director come walking out. Shit, you think. Can I get out of here without anyone noticing? You’ve just entered a talkback — the postplay discussion that you never asked for, but nonetheless keeps happening. Tessa Bryant has worked on multiple programming teams and has orchestrated many such after-show discussions. “Talkbacks are almost universally terrible,” Bryant says. She doesn’t CONVERGENCE: MAINTAINING ACCESSIBILITY BEYOND COVID-19 blame the WILL BE HELD ONLINE AT 7:30 P.M. programmers, MONDAY, MARCH 15. REGISTER AT FACEBOOK.COM/VERGETHEATERCO. the actors or the play. “The format doesn’t give people much, and I think it’s because we weren’t able to focus on those topics.” “Those topics” include social issues that are often kept outside the place where art happens — like inclusion and accessibility, sexism and racism. Bryant wanted to create space for actors and directors to discuss how real-world social problems play out onstage and in the boardrooms of arts institutions, but it’s tough to shoehorn a weighty topic like racism or homophobia into a 20-minute Q&A.

TOUCH AND GO OZ Arts resumes live, inperson performances with the premiere of Prism BY AMY STUMPFL

t’s been almost exactly one year since OZ Arts closed its doors in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. But this weekend, the contemporary arts center will reopen with a unique work that promises to explore PRISM RUNS MARCH 12timely issues of isolation 28 AT OZ ARTS. TICKETS AT and interpersonal OZARTSNASHVILLE.ORG. connection. Conceived and choreographed by David Flores, Prism is described as “a performance installation experience created for a physically distanced world.” The work, which blends striking visual elements with live music and innovative dance, will be performed in 35-minute cycles for small audience groups of no more than 20 people at a time — all wearing masks and maintaining social distance. “This work feels so connected to everything we’ve all been experiencing over the last year,” says Flores, a Nashville-based artist originally from Costa Rica. “I started working on it about two-and-a-half years ago, and from the beginning I was interested in looking at human connection and physical interaction. But within the context of COVID, those themes became even more heightened and universal. It really feels

As a board member of the small but mighty Verge Theater Company, Bryant has found an opportunity to scratch that itch. With conVERGEnce, Bryant hosts online participatory workshops in which theater makers and community members can envision a more equitable theater industry in Nashville. Bryant tested the idea last year with three events that focused on anti-racism, reimagining arts institutions and creating new works as a path forward. Featuring local theater makers like Shawn Whitsell, Jon Royal and Cynthia Harris, conVERGEnce has brought national discussions home. In June, a group of more than 300 theater makers of color formed the group We See You, White American Theater and published a letter excoriating the industry for inequitable practices and pervasive racial bias. The letter — which was signed by Billy Porter, Cynthia Erivo, Viola Davis and hundreds of others — was followed up by a 29-page document of demands including mandatory anti-racism training, eliminating the standard six-day rehearsal week, transparency in fundraising and much more. “As artists,” says Bryant, “we should be at the forefront of social progress, and in Nashville it does not always feel that way. I saw a need in myself and in people I was working with, especially white artists, that we could really benefit from getting together, sitting for a couple hours and coming up with

actionable solutions while being connected to some artists and thinkers and community organizers we didn’t know before.” The next session will take place on March 15 and focus on making theater more accessible, both financially and for people with disabilities. “A lot of theaters have produced amazing virtual work and made their work more financially accessible during the pandemic,” says Bryant, “so this conversation will be about harnessing that energy to make our theaters more accessible after COVID-19 is no longer a piece of the puzzle.” Lisa Troi Thomas of Chicago’s Steep Theatre will facilitate, and panelists include Nashville Disability Justice Collective co-founder Beth Thielman and Kindling Arts Festival artistic director Daniel Jones. Following that, April’s session will be focused on fatphobia in casting and behind the scenes; June’s will cover hetero- and cisnormativy in regional theater; and July’s session will look again at how theater makers can radically reimagine their institutions. Later in the year, conVERGEnce will dig into intimacy choreography and consent, unpaid internships and training paywalls, and more. “Not all sessions will be around antiracism,” says Bryant, “but anti-racist

policies and practices will be a recurring theme. … You can’t really solve any other problems without it. … You cannot address sexism or homophobia without addressing racism, because racism is so central to our ideas in America about masculinity and male dominance and heteronormativity. All of those things are connected. A lot of people talk about [social issues] and say, ‘Oh you can’t forget race.’ But you kind of have to start with race.” Verge co-artistic director Alicia Haymer hopes that people who have the power to make change happen in their own businesses and theaters will show up. “A lot of times with talks like this,” says Haymer, “it feels like you’re preaching to the choir, which is why I’m thankful that Tessa has decided to get even more nuanced and specific in the topics that we cover. … I hope for more opportunities for people to be taught something that hasn’t even crossed their minds.” Will the people running Nashville’s professional theater institutions show up to this new style of talkback? That remains to be seen. But Bryant is hopeful. “I’m thrilled if five people show up,” she says. “Five people having a conversation can change things, even in a small way.” EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

like a metaphor for what we’ve all been going through — locked in our own spaces, unable to interact outside our own bubbles.” In Prism, those physical spaces and limitations are often represented through a series of large-scale sculptures that incorporate patterns of interwoven thread and innovative lighting. Flores says he immediately liked the idea of creating movement in relationship to these huge installations, exploring their negative space and diving deep into “aspects of voyeurism and our changing relationships to physical intimacy.” “The whole idea of physical proximity and contact is just more evocative right now,” Flores says, “so to see the dancers interacting with — or contained by — these sculptures is quite powerful. There’s a strong, visceral impact. But the more we played with the sculptures, the more possibilities seemed to unfold. For example, we found that we could use black lights so that some sections of the sculptures would be visible and others hidden from view. And by using more of an elastic thread, we can actually move and create new lines and boundaries — a pretty useful tool during a pandemic.” In fact, where some artists might have struggled to work around current COVID guidelines and safety protocols, Flores has embraced them, allowing them to inform and shape the work. And while he certainly has been meticulous in his approach to audience and performer safety, he’s still found plenty of ways to honor the magic of live performance. “Although we have to be very thoughtful in terms of where people are standing and that sort of thing,

audience members will actually have quite a bit of freedom in how they move through the space and experience the work,” Flores says, noting that OZ’s open warehouse space is particularly wellsuited to the project, enabling him to create a truly immersive experience without sacrificing safety. “We’ve also incorporated the role of chance, with each performance showcasing different combinations of dancers chosen at random. The audience plays a part in that selection, so each run will be different. That really feeds my need for play and fun, which is exciting. The whole process has been incredibly inspiring, thanks in large part to the team at OZ Arts, as well as my collaborators.”

Those artistic collaborators include composer George Miller, who has created an original score for Prism, which will be performed live by Alicia Enstrom on violin and Adam Lochemes on electronics and production. And in addition to Flores, the company of dancers includes Lenin Fernandez, Becca Hoback, Emma Morrison, Rebeccah Peshlakai, Sarah Salim and Joi Ware. “It’s such a wonderful group,” Flores says. “I think we’re all just so thrilled to be able to share live performance again. We’re eager to get back to work — and to connect with Nashville audiences.”

LISA TROI THOMAS

DANIEL JONES

BETH THIELMAN

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

nashvillescene.com | MARCH 11 – MARCH 17, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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BOOKS

PORTRAIT OF AN ACTIVIST

Street chaplain Lindsey Krinks finds her voice through serving others BY BETH WALTEMATH

“T

oday is a beginning,” Lindsey Krinks said in her first rally speech while still an undergraduate at Lipscomb University. “Today we hope to spark a community-wide movement.” In Praying With Our Feet: Pursuing Justice and Healing on the Streets, Krinks documents the awakening of her social conscience, offering gracious but challenging homage to the conservative traditions that formed her and recounting her experiences among the homeless community in Nashville. Krinks’ authenticity never wavers, whether she’s in the ethics classroom at Lipscomb — where she first learned the broad effects of hunger and homelessness on children — or standing up PRAYING WITH OUR FEET: PURSUING JUSTICE AND HEALING ON THE STREETS BY LINDSEY KRINKS BRAZOS PRESS 210 PAGES, $17.99

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So Refreshing! Refreshing! A women’s column featuring a rotating cast of contributors

Vodka Yonic nashvillescene.com 22

KRINKS WILL DISCUSS HER MEMOIR ONLINE 5:30 P.M. MONDAY, MARCH 15, VIA THE PORCH WRITERS’ COLLECTIVE to police officers during the Occupy Nashville demonstrations. Krinks weaves autobiography with stories about unhoused people and provides commentary on the social, political and religious engines behind the systems keeping so many in a cycle of poverty and powerlessness. Drawing equally from personal reflection, feminist critique, biblical witness and sociopolitical theory, Praying With Our Feet marches through literary terrain that is equal parts comingof-age, coming-out, coming-to-Jesus and anti-capitalism manifesto. An unrelenting drive toward a life of integrity accelerates this book and the compassionate and unassuming voice behind it: I was raised in Churches of Christ, and from early on in my life, church was where I learned to love God and neighbor. It was where I saw people taking care of each other, where I found meaning and purpose and hope… As I grew older, some of the walls that had been constructed in me to keep certain people out, to keep God in, and to keep the boat from rocking, slowly began to crumble… I began to see and experience God more on the margins of society — the tent cities, jails, streets, and public squares — than I did within the actual walls of the church.

Along with her life partner, her colleagues and her friends on the margins, Krinks forms a church, Amos House, which she describes as “unconventional, unpropertied, unbound, physically homeless, experimental, and ecumenical … like the Spirit of God.” She also co-founds Open Table Nashville, a nationally acclaimed interfaith nonprofit whose mission is to “disrupt cycles of poverty, journey with the marginalized,” and educate others around issues of homelessness. “I wanted to follow in the footsteps of a homeless Galilean who spent his time on the underside of society, who balanced healing and teaching with raising holy hell,” Krinks writes of her decision to become ordained and begin the work she has been doing through Amos House and Open Table. Ordination for women is still not accepted in the Churches of Christ tradition, which introduced her to following Jesus and which her family and many friends still faithfully uphold. However, Krinks offers a compelling account of the anarchist strain in the tradition and how her teachers from Sunday school to college ethics classes opened her eyes to see the authority of a loving God over the authority of any oppressive system. Perhaps that is why the ceremony to honor her calling to the ministry appears to have been accepted by those who have shaped her and been shaped by her along the way, even if they may disagree with her politics or shy away from her prophetic faith. Her mentor in activism, Charles Strobel — the esteemed founder of Nashville’s Room In The Inn who gave up his own priesthood to serve the poor — encouraged her with the words of institutional confession: “We make it all up anyway. All our churches and institutions make up processes and rules, and they’re somehow official. But only God calls someone to ministry. Only God ordains.” As Krinks delves further into her activism and liberation theology, following the “descending and dissenting God,” the same hopefulness that inspired her first speech on the steps of the Tennessee State Capitol as an undergraduate gains momentum and makes room for others to join the movement. Despite the losses along the way — the friends who died by avoidable causes, the tent cities washed away by floods or condemned by governors, the social movements weakened by internal division and suppressed by state legislation — Krinks never loses her nerve or her belief that we can do better by each other. For more local book coverage, please visit Chapter16.org, an online publication of Humanities Tennessee. EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

NASHVILLE SCENE | MARCH 11 – MARCH 17, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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3/8/21 4:33 PM

Noteworthy y Noteworth Noteworthy Neighbors Neighbors We at the Scene have our picks for our annual People Issue, but we want to hear from YOU! Our Noteworthy Neighbors promotion calls on Nashvillians to highlight someone from their community who has done good work this year in their neighborhood — or beyond. Submit a nomination sharing their story and we’ll go through the submissions and feature the most inspiring and exceptional stories on our website, on our social media pages and in print.

Know someone who helps run errands or takes out the trash for an elderly neighbor?

Who stepped in to help when the tornado hit East Nashville, or the Christmas Day bombing rocked downtown?

How about a local health care worker who’s gone above and beyond?

Know someone who has volunteered their time to help those impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic?

Share a nomination telling their story by submitting it on our website (nashvillescene.com/NoteWorthyNeighbors) or share it on Instagram with the hashtag (#NashNoteworthyNeighbors) between March 1 and March 15. Spread the love and positivity of those in your community and help shine a light on the good work they’ve done over the past year! nashvillescene.com | MARCH 11 – MARCH 17, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE

MUSIC there as much as I can, because it’s just so beautiful and so ethereal and magical, these places where songs and art and poems and stories come from. It’s what could be, you know? Staying in that place and capturing a song, and then bringing it back to Earth and sharing it with other musicians and with an audience of listeners — it’s so joyful to have that experience, even when it’s a song that hits your sad parts or your dark parts. You used the word “catharsis” earlier, and that’s the word when you have a song that comes and it connects with people and it hits their dark side and lets them get that out.

While listening to the album, I really felt like I’d been dropped into a new world that you’d built, in a way I don’t always feel with albums. Was the idea of world-building at play in your process when you were making the album? One of the things I enjoy doing when I am unpacked from the suitcase and I have some time in New York is going to art exhibits. Sometimes they’ll have these art fairs, and each artist will be given a booth, and they’ll create a world, in that booth, of their art. You walk into this little booth, maybe 10 feet by 10 feet, and somebody has invited you into their world. When I do that, what I realize is that we all have these worlds. We’re all living in separate worlds within this world. “What is the magic of your world? How can you bring that magic forth and share that with other people to help uplift them?” is the question I asked myself. I wanted to give you a feeling of what it’s like in my world, and what it’s like to go to that place.

OF THIS WORLD

Valerie June expands her vision on The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers BY BRITTNEY McKENNA

ince her 2013 major label debut Pushin’ Against a Stone and its follow-up The Order of Time in 2017, singer, songwriter and instrumentalist Valerie June has awed fans and critics with her genre-defying, roots-leaning sound, THE MOON AND STARS: PRESCRIPTIONS FOR introspective lyrics DREAMERS OUT FRIDAY, and otherworldly MARCH 12, VIA FANTASY voice. She broadens RECORDS her artistic vision on new album The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions for Dreamers, an immersive listening experience that, through complex arrangements and poetic contemplation, offers space for profound healing and reflection. “It takes wild and ambitious and fearless dreaming to say, ‘What kind of new world can we create? How can it be more holistic? Are there enough resources on the Earth for us to be well-fed and have all of our human rights respected and appreciated?’ ” she tells me. “That’s the kind of healing I’m trying to do through song.” About a week ahead of the album’s release, I spoke with June about the intersection of songwriting, collaboration and spirituality.

We’re a year into the pandemic now, and there’s so much else that’s gone on over the past year, too. How have you been doing, both with regard to how COVID has affected the music industry, and with all of the other events we’ve lived through? I was fine at first, until the last few months. I am whipped. I miss everybody. I wasn’t able to go to Christmas. I haven’t been back to Tennessee. … We had to do some work, so we got testing facilities to come on-site so we could do the “Call Me a Fool” video. Everybody was so happy to be in a room with other people. Even socially distanced, we were like, “Yes! I’ve missed you!” And I didn’t even know these people. [Laughs] So I’m starting to get excited. Last week I got my first shot, and I get my second vaccination in a couple of weeks, so I’ll come to Tennessee like I do in the spring. I’ll start the garden in Humboldt, at my mom’s place where I live there. I’m looking forward to coming to Nashville, going to eat, going to Josephine’s, doing all my normal stuff. I’ll go to Memphis, of course, and hang out with all of my friends there. I live in Brooklyn and I live in Tennessee, and I travel back and forth every couple months. I don’t get to do that now.

It’s hard to engage with any kind of art these days without having the context of the pandemic and current events at least in the back of my mind. I had that experience while listening to your album. Have you had a similar experience? How has that shaped your perspective on the music? It certainly has and is changing. I find that songs are like that anyway. You could listen to a song that you heard when you fell in love with your first boyfriend or girlfriend or whoever. It comes on randomly in a grocery store now, and it means something different than it did then. So I always say that songs are living, because

they change — their messages and meaning change as time goes on. That’s definitely happened to me with this record. I felt so frustrated last year to have the record done before the pandemic came and to be almost finished mixing, then the pandemic hit and the label said, “No, we’re not going to do it right now.” I felt so sad. I’ve been with some of these songs for 15 years. Others were made while I was touring The Order of Time. We started recording in 2018, and we recorded in 2019 — by 2020, I was ready to roll. But the message then was “pause.” And as I paused, and I did my meditation and did my thing, then the songs started to really speak to me and their purpose and their place, and how timely and amazing it was that it came this year instead of last year. What needed to happen last year was the 20/20 vision of all the wounds and all the negativity coming to the surface — for us to really be able to see who we are and what kind of demons we’re dealing with in our hearts, and what kind of angels we’re dealing with in our hearts. For all of that to come to surface, that needed to happen. Once the veil is torn, only then can you start to heal. So it’s very timely that the record comes out now, in this place when our hearts are tender.

You’ve mentioned some artists who help you believe that change is possible through music, like John Lennon, Aretha Franklin and Sam Cooke. Considering your own writing process, when you really feel yourself being able to channel your inner hopes and dreams, what does that look like? How do you take what’s inside you and translate it to the page or a recording? I get so happy when I’m able to do it, because you’re basically working in an invisible world. You’re working in an imaginary realm. I like to live

You co-produced the album with Jack Splash. What was it about him that made him a good creative collaborator for you? He joined the band, so he was inside the songs as well as producing them. That was cool to have, but the coolest part was that he was respectful and encouraging me as an artist who’s learning new things about recording. I gotta tell you, I didn’t care anything about recording or technology. … But I started teaching myself that stuff, and to have a master teacher like Jack come into my life was huge. One of the things he discussed with me was an email from the Grammys trying to highlight more female producers. He said: “I really think that needs to happen. What do you think?” But what he did was not just say, “I think that needs to happen,” but he took me and step-by-step taught me how to produce songs.

Both Lester Snell and Carla Thomas appear on the album. Given their rich musical histories, what did they bring to the table creatively that you may not have had access to otherwise? They brought everything. The album is Lester Snell and Carla Thomas. That, to me, is what it is. That was one of the gifts of working with Jack; he was able to hear my voices and say, “I know exactly who we need to get to do that voice.” So he said, “We have to get Mr. Lester to do the strings and play on your record.” … You meet him and he’s the most humble man and so chill, then you go in and with four musicians he’s able to get a sound that sounds like an orchestra. … About a month later, I was like, “I gotta get Carla Thomas to sing with me on ‘Call Me a Fool.’ ” I’d heard her on “What a Fool I’ve Been” and had listened to it for years and years. … So she’s the fairy godmother of the record. To work with her and hear her stories was life-changing. EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

NASHVILLE SCENE | MARCH 11 – MARCH 17, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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MUSIC

PRESIDENT GAS

Palm Ghosts embrace pop and dystopia on Lifeboat Candidate BY EDD HURT

lthough punk may not be remembered as a particularly didactic kind of music, its great practitioners did teach us a valuable lesson. When you listen to Pere Ubu’s 1976 track “Final Solution” or The Clash’s LIFEBOAT CANDIDATE OUT FRIDAY, MARCH 19, 1977 song “Remote VIA ICE QUEEN RECORDS Control,” you get the idea that dystopias are just another opportunity for someone to write a pop song. In other words, punk — and its more commercially friendly offshoot, post-punk — embraced the concept of societal collapse while sending up the idea as faintly absurd. What’s fascinating about Nashville post-punk band Palm Ghosts’ Lifeboat Candidate, out March 19, is how completely the group buys into the notion that anarchy has arrived, courtesy of the McConnell-Trump era. The band’s strategy may seem retro, and Palm Ghosts certainly take their cues from innovators in and around post-punk like The Psychedelic Furs and Peter Gabriel. You can also hear hints of David Bowie, himself

PILGRIM’S PROGRESS

Nashville singer-songwriter Lauryn Peacock examines the varieties of religious belief on Theology BY EDD HURT

he first thing to say about Nashville singersongwriter Lauryn Peacock’s new full-length Theology is that it manages to live up to its title by not sounding overtly theological. In her latest songs, Peacock adds a sense of moral gravity to the texture of everyday life, but she delivers her insights into the THEOLOGY WILL BE nature of religious belief SELF-RELEASED FRIDAY, by making her music MARCH 12 as engaging — and, at times, as indecisive — as the lives of the struggling human beings she writes about. Theology is a record about religion, but it’s not a drag. It’s high-level pop that might make you rethink your own spirituality, and her substantial melodic and harmonic gifts help the medicine go down as sweetly as it can. Theology is the first album Peacock has released since 2015’s Euphonia, and in a sense it’s her take on Nashville-style folk rock. She cut most of Euphonia in Nashville, with some parts recorded in Philadelphia, where she lived before moving to town in 2013. Produced by Peacock and Andrija Tokic at his Music City studio The Bomb Shelter, Theology builds upon the strengths of Peacock’s previous work, which fuses folk, classical music and jazz. Her latest music keeps the complexity that characterizes Euphonia and her 2011 debut full-length Keep It Simple Let the Sun Come Out, and Tokic adds organ and layers of electric guitars to Peacock’s carefully written songs.

an essential originator of the doom-laden rock of the 1980s. Still, Lifeboat Candidate avoids the trap of homage. The band’s music is plenty catchy, and the angst is simply part of the package. Despite its stylistic flourishes, the songwriting on Lifeboat Candidate often harks back to a style of British Invasion rock that favored well-defined bridges and choruses. It’s a record that manages to be both tense and relaxed — every drum part springs into postpunk space, but the songs are structured in traditional ways. For singer and songwriter Joseph Lekkas, who started Palm Ghosts in Philadelphia eight years ago, the group’s new music builds upon his earlier work. “The influences were more like roots, indie-folk kind of stuff, and a lot of psychedelic stuff,” Lekkas says from his Nashville home, referring to Palm Ghosts’ eponymous 2014 debut. He recorded Palm Ghosts in Philadelphia before moving to Nashville later that year. Soon after he moved to town, he began collaborating with future Palm Ghosts member Benjamin Douglas, who had also recently relocated to Nashville. “I

Theology fits into the rich tradition of Nashville singer-songwriterdom, but Peacock’s ear for idiosyncratic structure and her clear, vibratoless voice also link her to innovative experimenters like Joni Mitchell and Brian Eno. Euphonia amounted to a brilliant distillation of the usages of pop art song, in part due to the production skills of Danielson Famile leader Daniel Smith, with whom Peacock worked in Philadelphia. For Peacock, the shift in production style augments her music without altering it. “Daniel’s very quirky,” Peacock says of Smith. She’s at home in Nashville, where she’s busy working on an MFA in poetry from New York University. “He’s actually credited with kind of messing up the Christian rock scene and opening it up to alternative musics. [His method] is not like Andrija’s more murky, mostly-totape, mix-it-in-the-board approach.” Peacock was born in North Barrington, Ill., and she settled in Philadelphia in 2008 after living in locales as varied as Chicago and Santa Rosa, Calif. She split her time in Philadelphia between earning a master’s degree in literature from the University of Pennsylvania and performing in the city’s indie-folk scene. “It was everybody running into each other on the street constantly,” she says about her Philadelphia days. “It was a lot of the folk scene, like the people who camp out and sometimes win the lottery of musicians to play, like, the Philly Folk Festival.” You can clearly hear the folk elements throughout Theology, but Tokic’s production nudges Peacock into an area that’s adjacent to rock ’n’ roll and Americana. The album’s opening song “Camus Blues” amounts to a modernized Sun Records-style tune about French novelist and essayist Albert Camus. On the track, Megan Coleman’s drums gallop along as if in emulation of the style of the late Sun Records session drummer W.S. “Fluke” Holland. Meanwhile, Peacock’s lyric lays out one of the record’s themes: “The morality of attention / Is a sign of invention.” Peacock’s studio band on Theology, which includes Coleman along with Deslondes guitarist John

mean, I still love early Floyd, so I was doing more of that kind of stuff. It ended up being more like a rootsy-type sound.” The indie-folk vibe of Palm Ghosts comes through most clearly on that album’s “Airplane Jane,” an Americana tune with a straightforward narrative. The group’s second album, 2017’s Greenland, continued in the same vein, with nods to R.E.M.’s jangle pop. The fog of dystopia set in for 2018’s Architecture, and Lifeboat Candidate sets sail in the mist. The record flawlessly updates the sound of the post-punk ’80s, making it a

worthy companion to The Psychedelic Furs’ 1982 release Forever Now. Lifeboat Candidate isn’t a mere pastiche: Lekkas sings in the tones of Psychedelic Furs frontman Richard Butler, but the album registers as both post-punk and contemporary to the pandemic. As Lekkas explains, the album was written collectively, starting with iPhone recordings created by drummer Walt Epting in New Jersey. “He would send the drum parts, and I would piece together these grooves, and I would play bass on them and kind of come up with the song structure,” Lekkas says. “Then we’d send it to [guitarist Jason Springman]. Then we’d send it to Ben, who would write melody and vocal.” Like the Forever Now standout “President Gas,” Lifeboat works as dystopian pop, and the relentless anti-groove might induce you to gyrate as you contemplate the world’s uncertain future. Every track works — Springman adds melodic licks that help define the music. I’m not sure what “Revelation Engines” signifies, beyond an evocation of societal breakdown, but it’s a superb soundscape: dance music for an age of chaos. Elsewhere, “The Kids” includes a guitar figure that connects the song to the heyday of The Beatles and The Byrds, before popular music started to describe the end of the world. It’s a first-rate song, and listening to it will put you in mind of the kind of dystopia that only pop is equipped to deal with. EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

LAURYN PEACOCK

James Tourville, Raconteurs bassist Jack Lawrence and background vocalist Molly Parden, complements Peacock’s songs perfectly, casting them in a manner that sounds less baroque than Smith’s approach on Euphonia. The five-minute track “Ephrem’s Request” begins with an acoustic guitar figure before spiralling into a minor-key folk song featuring seething electric guitars. Meanwhile, “You Choose You” sports pizzicato strings and a chord progression that recalls prog pioneers Procol Harum circa their 1969 album A Salty Dog. As “You Choose You” demonstrates, Peacock, who plays keyboards and guitars on the album, creates newfangled prog-folk on Theology — you can envision her covering the classic A Salty Dog track “Pilgrim’s Progress,” right down to Matthew Fisher’s Bach-like organ part. Still, Peacock gets her message across in “Cameron,” one of the simplest, folkiest songs on the album. As she tells me, it’s based on director Desiree

Akhavan’s 2018 film The Miseducation of Cameron Post, itself adapted from Emily M. Danforth’s 2012 novel of the same name. “In the movie, Cameron Post is forced to go into, pretty much, gay conversion therapy camp — Christian gay conversion therapy camp,” Peacock says. “The spiritual and emotional damage of that space is made very apparent throughout the movie. It speaks, also, about any system or religious practice, or mindset, that doesn’t respect the whole of a person.” As it’s heard on Theology, “Cameron” doesn’t make its underlying situation completely explicit, though Peacock sings it with pained sympathy. The slight ambiguity works in the song’s favor — the problem of self-definition is universal. Theology never makes the answers appear to be easy, and Peacock’s music communicates the combination of ecstasy and unease that religion was designed to address. EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

nashvillescene.com | MARCH 11 – MARCH 17, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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